LAWRENCE — Marquel Combs seems like the kind of guy who might have seen the inside of the principal’s office once or twice, so he had to know what was coming when Kansas coach Charlie Weis summoned him for a chat before the Jayhawks opened fall camp.

This is the conversation where some stern-looking adult explains that, as much as everyone enjoys Combs’ magnetic personality, sometimes it’s necessary to dial it down a notch. Everybody wants Combs to be himself, but sometimes they want him to do it a little more, uh, quietly.

“I’ve had that conversation numerous times,” Combs said.

Combs means no harm. He’s just a large, loquacious defensive end from Memphis who likes to talk, likes to laugh and likes to make other people laugh with him. But Combs wanted to start his KU career on the right foot, so he went out of his way to prove he’d taken Weis’ words to heart.

“I went and got a yo-yo,” Combs said, “so now I just be yo-yoing around so I don’t talk as much.”

Wait, you bought a yo-yo?

“To keep myself company,” he said.

Combs is trying his best, but temptation always lurks. Monday, he met the media for the first time since arriving on campus, and it was inevitable that someone would ask about the “dream team” moniker he created for KU’s 2013 recruiting class. Combs’ eyes lit up as he recalled his role in spreading the message via social media.

“I can get y’all shirts made,” he said. “We’d love to see them in the stands.”

If Combs is equally difficult to stop on the field, he’ll be a significant addition for KU’s defense. He was rated the No. 1 junior college recruit in his class by ESPN, so there is reason to think he can be a difference-maker when he lines up for the Jayhawks at defensive end.

For Combs and the rest of KU’s juco transfers, the chance to make a difference was a big part of the draw.

“The dream team is here,” he said. “It’s all like I said. We’re just coming in and trying to put KU back to where it should be, like the Orange Bowl feeling, the bowl game feeling. We want to be the reason why this program came from here all the way to the top.”

That was a powerful idea for Combs, who listed more than 50 scholarship offers from teams in every major conference. He’d visited schools in the SEC, but when it came to making a commitment, he wasn’t looking for a perennial winner.

“In my mind, I already had established that I’m not going to no already winning program,” said Combs, a transfer from Pierce (Calif.) College. “I wanted to go to a program that was on the rise or that was losing, and I wanted to be the reason their program comes all the way up to the top.”

KU certainly fit those criteria, and Weis — rarely at a loss for words himself — connected with Combs during his campus visit. Combs didn’t get the “pile of crap” recruiting pitch, though that kind of straight talk fits with his vernacular.

“I probably would have laughed,” Combs said.

There is a time and place for being serious, though, and football training camp is one of those places. That’s the message Weis wanted to convey when he spoke to Combs last week, because chatter can sound kind of hollow when you’re coming off of a 1-11 season.

“I’ll let him crank it back up in September, but for the time being, I just want everyone to shut up and go to work,” Weis said. “Talk is cheap. We’ve all had a lot to say and haven’t done a damn thing, so it’s time to shut up and go to work.”

So if you happen to see a 300-pound man walking around campus with a yo-yo on his finger, just know that Marquel Combs is trying.

“I want to hear me talk, not him,” Weis said. “He’ll probably hear that several times in the next couple of weeks.”